A Cranky Clairvoyant, a Juilliard Student and the ‘Ritualistic’ Killing That Haunts New York
“Sarah was an old soul,” said her former roommate. “She was extremely kind… and extremely talented… And it just felt like [she] was just kind of taken from everybody.”
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos Getty/Handout
On May 19, 2004, 21-year-old Sarah Fox, a student at Juilliard’s prestigious drama school, bid her roommate goodbye and went out for a run.
The roommate, Patrick Dall’Occhio, a budding actor and improv comic, had taken the day off to run some errands. After doing laundry and checking in on family by phone, Dall’Occhio sat down in front of the TV with a pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
Fox never returned from her run that afternoon, but Dall’Occhio figured she must have stayed over at a friend’s house and had forgotten to check in, so he wasn’t overly worried. But the next day, he got a call from Fox’s boyfriend, Matt D’Amico, with whom he’d grown up in Whittier, California. D’Amico, who lived around the corner and also went to Juilliard, was worried that he hadn’t heard from Fox since the day before. As time passed, Fox’s friends and classmates became increasingly concerned. They gathered at the apartment Fox and Dall’Occhio shared on Isham Street in Upper Manhattan.
